file photo Boyd Loving
JUNE 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015, 3:13 PM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
“You are proof that darkness will lose!” shouted the Rev. Mack Brandon during a joyous, gospel-infused musical interlude. It was the kind of cathartic moment necessary to offset the pain felt by citizens everywhere following a national tragedy that hit too close to home.
“In the midst of our pain we sing, in the midst of our pain we pray,” Brandon said later, characterizing the evening as a sober moment. “In the midst of our pain we speak to each other.”
Balancing the relief of healing and the sorrow of tragedy was at the center of a community prayer gathering at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Ridgewood on Sunday. Congregants and clergy of all races and faiths packed the church to call for peace and harmony after nine people were killed at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. on June 17.
As Mayor Paul Aronsohn welcomed the community members to the church, he asked the people to unite as one and chart a new path, using the tragedy as a wake-up call to treat one another as equals.
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/ridgewood-shows-solidarity-with-charleston-1.1363305
